36. MAN AND NATURE

36. MAN AND NATURE



Peace by piece 
by Celia Berrell

The world is getting smaller
and its breaking into bits.
Let’s put it back together.
Peace by piece
the puzzle fits.

Repairs can all be tended
by the tiniest of friends.
As working all together
peace by piece
the puzzle mends.

Earth as seen from space.

THERE is a general view that nature is steady, while man is both unsteady and capricious. Poets express this in beautiful songs, as in the following from the 1954 movie Nastik.

Nature and man

देख तेरे संसार की हालत क्या हो गई भगवान
कितना बदल गया इनसान कितना बदल गया इनसान
सूरज न बदला चांद न बदला ना बदला रे आसमान
कितना बदल गया इनसान कितना बदल गया इनसान

Dekh tere sansar ki haalat kya hogayi bhagwan

Kitna badal gaya insaan, kitna badal gaya insaan

Suraj na badla chand na badla na badla rae aasman

Kitna badal gaya Insaan

O Lord, look at the state of your world!
How much has man changed, how much has man changed!
Sun has not changed, moon has not changed, 
nor has the sky changed,
How much has man changed !

आया समय बड़ा बेढंगा
आज आदमी बना लफ़ंगा
कहीं पे झगड़ा कहीं पे दंगा
नाच रहा नर हो कर नंगा
छल और कपट के हाथों अपना
बेच रहा ईमान, कितना …

Aaya samay bada bedanga

Aaj aadmi bana lafanga

Kahin pe jagda kahin pe dhanga

Naach raha nar hokar nanga

Chal aur kapat kae haathon apna

Baech raha imaan, kitna badal gaya insaan.

Times have come which are unsuitable
Today man has become unsettled.
There is fight somewhere, there is riot somewhere
Man is dancing naked!
With guile and pretense, men are selling their faith!
How much  has man changed !

This is from the celluloid poet Kavi Pradeep. Here he is contrasting the social environment created by man, and the natural environment. The natural environment is taken to be unchanging, while man is changing his social environment in unwholesome ways.



Does man change?

Marcus Aurelius


Some philosophers however hold that over the years, humanity is by and large what it has always been: seeing and doing things in the same way. For instance, Marcus Aurelius writes:

"Think by way of example the times of Vespasian, and you will see all these things: marrying,raising children, falling ill, dying, wars, holiday feasts, commerce, farming, flattering, pretending,suspecting, scheming, praying that others die, grumbling over one's lot, falling in love,amassing fortunes, lusting after office and power. Now that life of theirs is dead and gone.....the times of Trajan, again the same....."

 [ Meditations. 4.32  Translation by Stephen Hanselman ]

( Vespasian was the Roman Emperor from 69 to 79 AD. Trajan was the emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Marcus Aurelius was himself emperor from 161 to 180 AD)

Here, we are told that in about a century, humans had not changed their ways significantly. They had carried on in much the same way!

Things are not the same!

Those living now in the second decade of the 21st century can hardly agree with either assessment fully. We know that both the natural environment, and the social structure have undergone tremendous changes due to human intervention. Things may seem the same, but they are not. We may be doing the same things, but not in the same manner or spirit!

Basic human nature has not changed. We are as prone to love and war, hatred and strife, struggle for power and position, given to scheming and flattering, now as in the days of Marcus Aurelius. But our methods and weapons have changed. Love is not steady, marriage is not for life but a contract of convenience, children are with single parents, old people are dumped in -what are atrociously called - "old age homes" which are anything but homes! War is not confined to combatants. We have lost our sense of right and wrong, and an intense relativism dictates and guides our actions. Utilitarian calculations have replaced moral concerns. We continue with old names, but they do not mean now what they meant in the past.

Sun is changing

While society has changed, nature is also observed to be not so steady, after all. Scientists tell us that the sun for instance is steadily changing. They estimate its life to be about 8 billion years, and it is now half way through- in about its 4.5 billionth year. A stage will come when it will burn up its hydrogen, become a red-giant star,[ finally assuming 150 times its present size ] and engulf Mercury, Venus and   Earth.  Though this will happen  in another 3.5 billion years, earth will become unlivable in another billion years!

Sun as red-giant star: Image from NASA

 In the mean time, the sun too continues to behave in cycles,  causing disturbances on earth,through waves of heat and cold; though the effects may not last long, the cycles get repeated. This is quite apart from the changing seasons.

However these things do not unduly disturb us Hindus whose scriptures tell us that even the Universe will one day disintegrate!

Man is changing the earth!

While this is the natural progression based on the life of the sun as projected by scientists, earth is already becoming unlivable due to human activity- its nature and scale.'Progress' based on human economic and industrial activity  in the last two centuries has polluted all the surface water on earth; it has polluted the rivers and the oceans; it has destroyed forests which precipitate rain and protect the soil; it has polluted the air and atmosphere. It has invented products and processes which directly affect Nature adversely and permanently, and in ways which affect the quality of life. It has led to extinction , and seriously threatens the existence, of many life forms on earth, the true function and significance of which even the so called scientists do not fully know.Pollution , global warming,and the risks of  nuclear energy are distinctly modern phenomena, due to our 'scientific advance'. Thus the nature surrounding us is not what it was at the time of Marcus Aurelius, it is not what it was even a century ago! These have brought about radical changes in our social arrangements too.

While every other life form on earth lives in ways as intended by nature, in harmony with it, man alone does things which go against nature , and yet calls it 'progress'! Such progress has made our water undrinkable , and the air unbreathable!

In fact, those who are over 70 can easily see how fast, and how irreversibly things have changed all around us in the last 50 years in India. All aspects of life have changed simultaneously. Nothing that we use today is exactly what it was a fifty years ago! Even our traditional food has changed in content and composition, though it retains its name and form! The institutions which provided stability and strength in times of stress in the past , like  marriage and family, religious orders and arrangements, local communities, etc have also changed radically. Or, they no more fulfill their old functions. Even the pace of life has accelerated, and life style altered.

The net result is that man has simply failed to comprehend and relate to his environment- natural or social- meaningfully. Both are being manipulated by him continuously, in accelerated ,unceasing wave after wave. Commercial interests have taken control of the details of living. 

For serious students of literature, this does not come as a  surprise at all. Poets and philosophers have been warning us of the forces of change. But no one foresaw the furious pace of the change. 

FUTURE SHOCK



Alvin Toffler in 2006. 
Photo: By Vern Evans (Flickr:AT 02)
CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia commons)

 The author who best captured the situation was Alvin Toffler. In his 1970 book "Future Shock", he traced in sufficient detail the forces of change, their pace, direction and magnitude. He called 'Future Shock' that psychological state, based on a culture shock, where both individuals and societies were unable to cope with change- too much change in too short a time at too fast a pace. This is compounded by "information overload"- we have too much information for our understanding. The situation totally disorients both individuals and societies. Institutions and arrangements of the past would not help us. We are left dazed.

We must search out totally new ways to anchor ourselves, for all the old roots — religion, nation, community, family, or profession — are now shaking under the hurricane impact of the accelerative thrust.

Thus the present is not a smooth extension of the past,  the past is no sure guide to the future. Toffler also anticipated the era of personal computers, mobile communication ,internet and email, etc but warned us in 1998:

"Society needs people who take care of the elderly and who know how to be compassionate and honest. Society needs people who work in hospitals. Society needs all kinds of skills that are not just cognitive; they're emotional, they're affectional. You can't run the society on data and computers alone."

Disturbing trends

Cover of an old edition shown here for educational purpose.


I first read the book in 1974, and it has left a lasting and disturbing impression.Almost everything  that the author said has happened! This book is still relevant. Our youngsters would be shocked to know how relevant it is to India today! How mindlessly has India embraced 'future shock'!


Technological and natural environment
Toffler mainly deals with the  consequences of the industrial and technological changes created by man, during the three phases of the so called march of civilization: the agrarian, industrial and post-industrial society.[detailed in his book 'The Third Wave', 1980.] Other aspects of these changes have been studied by others like Lewis Mumford, Jacques Ellul. Man's capacity to adapt to change, individually and socially, has seriously lagged behind the pace of change. It is even more than the human mind can really absorb.

But since the days of 'Future Shock' which continues to be relevant, serious scientists have studied how man's activities in the name of progress have impacted the environment, and how unsuitable the earth is becoming as our habitat. The rising science of ecology since the days of Rachel Carson is revealing the serious nature of the damage, often irreversible, being caused by man, in the name of progress and development, with the aid of modern science! But this is yet to be fully acknowledged by the so called scientific community, and appreciated by the educated public and its leaders.

 India could have avoided many of the pitfalls if we had followed a different line of development, but our leaders lacked wisdom and courage; they merely followed the ways of the West as progress, and we have repeated and inherited all their mistakes, misdeeds and misery. Present PM Modi too is following the same route!

Ancient literature is full of accounts of people who have cried, in every age, that it has deteriorated, compared to the past! But what we are witnessing now is unprecedented by all objective standards. The earth and air, water and sky are not now what they were  a mere 50 years ago- as measured by scientific instruments! Even the chemical composition of our food has changed! There is now practically no food item which is not touched or treated by some chemical at some stage! There is no one power or authority which controls things or can call the shots. We in fact do not know for sure who runs the show! Things are going on pretty much as an orchestra without  a conductor!

 I do not like to conclude a piece on negative lines, but here I see no glimmer of light, unless we make bold to say that the answer to change is even more change, even faster change ! Let us keep travelling just for the fun of it, even if we do not know the direction or destination! Is it any consolation  that this is what is supposed to happen in this Kali Age, according to our own sacred books ? Relief in the form of an Avatar comes, but at the end! The age promises relief only to individuals who strive spiritually! How we wish we could return to  simpler ways, and say with the poet:

Therefore am I still 

A lover of the meadows and the woods 

And mountains; and of all that we behold 

From this green earth; of all the mighty world 

Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create, 

And what perceive; well pleased to recognise 

In nature and the language of the sense 

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, 

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul 

Of all my moral being. 

William Wordsworth.
Tintern Abbey Lines
July 13, 1798